Pope Francis has issued a message calling for governments to take "drastic measures" on climate change in lieu with the upcoming United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York.
In the appeal written for Sunday’s World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, the Pope said “There, governments will have the responsibility of showing the political will to take drastic measures to achieve as quickly as possible zero net greenhouse gas emissions and to limit the average increase in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius with respect to pre-industrial levels, in accordance with the Paris Agreement goals.”
Prior to this, Francis has called for environmental protection numerous times and has received criticism from leaders who are climate change skeptics, such as U.S. President Donald Trump, who has removed the country from the Paris Agreement.
According to the Roman Catholic leader, “We have caused a climate emergency that gravely threatens nature and life itself, including our own.” He pointed out that global temperatures are rising above safe levels in recent decades due to continued fossil fuel consumption, intensive agricultural exploitation and deforestation.
Francis also called on the people to become more independent of fossil fuels and move more quickly towards clean energy and sustainable and circular economies.
He emphasized that the “melting of glaciers, scarcity of water, neglect of water basins and the considerable presence of plastic and microplastics in the oceans are equally troubling, and testify to the urgent need for interventions that can no longer be postponed.”
He said that “Egoism and self-interest have turned creation, a place of encounter and sharing, into an arena of competition and conflict." He added that “Too many of us act like tyrants with regard to creation.”
At the end of the message, he encouraged all human beings to “feel challenged to assume, with prayer and commitment, our responsibility for the care of creation.”
